1965 Poem by Mason Maestro

The dust and radiator steam has cleared
This memory of that day has become all but smeared

They were eating dim sum on the banks of the Pearl
He looked across to the cross-legged girl
To the strains of a Chinese classic quartet
With his little red book in back pocket
Only a fool believed in the capitalist road
And the Revolution is taboo to the old of Guangzhou

On one spring day in ‘65
Four brothers walked out of some restaurant dive
Drove down a lonely Alberta road
Only three escaped the wreck alive

Meanwhile Mao ordered mass killings
Soon after no child shall ever have siblings
One said- “Mama, this homework’s too hard!
Why do I have to keep studying these red book recitals? ”
And the chairman on high and the generals with stripes said
“Don’t question the man or your role, you’re a smart kid.
The sun’s shining down on China’s towering crown
History’s a tool from the lands of our dads-
And from the hands of our reclining Buddha”
Then they took hold of the reigns
Of five nuclear submarines
Carefully placed… in precautionary order
Along the straits and the border… with Taiwan

I looked back at the pic of my late long-gone uncle
Forty years on, the pieces fit like a puzzle